Here are the results of the vote, the Palestinian book we'll be reading next month & a bonus Palestinian cook book to whet your appetite.
Which Palestinian Book Should We Read?
The Two "Countries" We'll Be Reading Next
December's Indian Read
Which book should we read in December?
Many of you were excited to see that we choose India as our country to read in December. We are excited too!
We were also pleased to receive 6 book suggestions from you noting books which piqued your interest or ones you've loved. Because of the large number of suggestions sent in, we randomly selected which 2 to include in the final list of 6. (See the screencast with audio which shows the automated selection here.) Thanks to all who suggested books, & special thanks to Ester Elbert & Jo Jackson whose suggestions were included in the final list of books! Note: Another book suggestion from Julie Jacobs is in the final line up as well because it topped my long list of India books & is now 1 of my 2 book suggestions included.
This month, you'll be choosing from the following genres: history, satirical fiction, literature, biography, autobiography & a fantasy myth/legend novel which also happens to be an LGBTQIA selection. This latter point becomes even more amazing when you realize that Indian law makes being gay punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
You can vote until Mon., Nov. 20 11PM ET. (That's NYC time. See this converted to your local time below.)
Time converter at worldtimebuddy.com
To participate:
1. Review the books.
We'll publish the anonymous results afterwards so you can get the book in advance.
Book Giveaway!
Recently, I attended Random House's Off the Page, an all-day bookish event with their best authors.
Why should you care?
Well, I stood in a VERY LONG line to get this book signed by NY Times bestselling author, Kelly Corrigan just for you! Named by HuffPost as “the poet laureate of the ordinary,” Kelly has written a new book titled, Tell Me More that is a "deeply personal, unfailingly honest, & often hilarious examination of the essential phrases that turn the wheel of life."
Yep, we're thrilled to announce that A World Adventure by Book is doing a giveaway!
The only thing you need to do to win is let us know you're interested in this very special book. Unlike Goodreads & other bookish sites which ask you to sign up for a newsletter or follow a page in order to enter the giveaway, we want you to have this fantastic book before its official launch in January just because we like you.
Rules:
Comment on the post announcing this giveaway in our Facebook book club by Nov. 19 11:59PM ET & you'll be entered into the drawing. A random winner will then be chosen. And yes, anyone can enter the giveaway. We'll send the book to you no matter where you live in the world because after all, we're A World Adventure by Book & believe in reading books from other countries!
December's Country
Ranging from desert to alpine tundra to humid tropical regions, December's country has a motley landscape. This country is also rich in heritage & known as one of the oldest civilizations to exist. Often thought to be one of the most culturally varied in the world, this country reveals the diversity of its people in the amazing flavors of its food from sweet to savory. And it's the 4th most popular country from which book club members originate!
Have you guessed yet which country we're visiting next? If not, just a few more hints. Like baseball/football in the US & soccer in the UK, cricket is this country's second religion while its dance forms are a spiritual art & its festivals are so vibrant they're world renowned.
Which Country are We Reading Next?
A land of mystical dreams—India! I chose this country for December based upon my recent foray into cooking a variety of Indian & Indian-fusion dishes. (I've always adored Indian food, but never made it from scratch until recently. If you're curious about cooking with Indian spices, I've included two of my favorite cookbooks which make Indian flavors accessible with deliciously easy recipes.)
HAVE ANY BOOK SUGGESTIONS?
We'd love to hear suggestions from you! Just let us know by Wed., Nov. 15 11PM ET. (That's NYC time. See this converted to your local time below.)
Time converter at worldtimebuddy.com
We'll use 2 suggestions from book club members, 2 suggestions from Mia (the book club moderator) & 2 of my suggestions to compile a list of 6 books on which book club members will vote. The most popular book from the list will then be read.
Please note - We're specific in our books, they must:
- Largely occur in the country specified unless the world described is an alternate universe
- Be written by an author born there who has spent a good portion of their life there
- Exist in paperback & ebook available on both Amazon & Kindle at least in the US & hopefully elsewhere
November's Croatian Book
Thanks to all who voted! Each vote really counts as it was the votes cast on the last day of voting which pushed the chosen book over the top.
But before we get to the results, here are our favorite comments from members about the selection of Croatian books:
- Love this. I bought two of them.
- This is a wonderful selection! It was difficult for me to pick the ranks!
- Thanks for the work in putting this list together. :)
- Love the variety.
- Nice mix of choices.
So Which Book Will We Be Reading in November?
Officially, we'll begin reading the book below on Nov. 1st so you have time to get it in advance. You'll have till the end of November to finish the book before we begin the discussion.
"Dada’s life is at a standstill in Zagreb—she’s sleeping with a married man, working a dead-end job, and even the parties have started to feel exhausting. So when her sister calls her back home to help with their aging mother, she doesn’t hesitate to leave the city behind. But she arrives to find her mother hoarding pills, her sister chain-smoking, her long-dead father’s shoes still lined up on the steps, and the cowboy posters of her younger brother Daniel (who threw himself under a train four years ago) still on the walls.
Hoping to free her family from the grip of the past, Dada vows to unravel the mystery of Daniel’s final days. This debut by a poet from Croatia’s 'lost generation' explores a beautiful Mediterranean town’s darkest alleys: the bars where secrets can be bought, the rooms where bodies can be sold, the streets and houses where blood is shed. By the end of the long summer, the lies, lust, feuds, and frustration will come to a violent and hallucinatory head."
Note: This book may be listed under the title Adios, Cowboy or Farewell, Cowboy.
View on Amazon (US) | (UK) | (Canada)
Which Croatian Book Should We Read in November?
Though a small country, Croatia has quite a tumultuous history which continues into today. In order to comprehend the mindset of modern Croat authors, it's important to understand 6 key historical facts. As the BBC notes:*
- The lands that comprise Croatia were a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until WWI's end.
- In the early 1900s, the Croats, Serbs & Slovenes formed Yugoslavia.
- Then, the Nazis invaded & a Greater Croatia was formed including most of Bosnia & western Serbia. The regime killed hundreds of thousands of Serbs & Jews trying to create a Catholic, all-Croat republic.
- After a bitter resistance campaign by Communist partisans soon after WWII, Croatia became 1 of the 6 republics of the Yugoslav socialist federation.
- In the 1970s, protesters unsuccessfully tried to assert Croat autonomy.
- In 1991, Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia. However, it took 4 years of bitter, fighting in the Balkans before Serb armies were mostly cleared from Croatian lands, along with a majority of Croatia's ethnic Serb population. Under UN supervision, the last Serb-held enclave was returned to Croatia in 1998.
Break-up of Yugoslavia. Croatia shown in light red with the capital of Zagreb marked on the map.
Original by Hoshie; derivative by DIREKTOR, Breakup of Yugoslavia-TRY2, CC BY-SA 3.0
More recently, as detailed by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia,** the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague began trying over 160 people for mass atrocities, genocide & crimes against humanity which took place in Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina committed during the 1990s war in the Balkans. While the most significant number of cases have dealt with crimes committed by Serbs & Bosnian Serbs, the Tribunal has investigated & brought charges against a variety of people including some Croats. As the last major trial is set deliver a verdict next month, these war crimes are still at the forefront of Croat minds.
Now, Onto the Voting
This month, you'll choose among works of history, noir crime fiction, war, literature, essays & a new genre for our book club, psychological horror. Special thanks to Neha Mehta for her suggestion of essays included in this list!
Since this post was delayed due to a family emergency & then technical difficulties, voting will be extended until Sun., Oct. 22 11PM ET in order to provide book club members the full 5 days for voting. (That's NYC time. See this converted to your local time below.)
Time converter at worldtimebuddy.com
To participate:
1. Review the books.
We'll publish the anonymous results afterwards so you can get the book in advance.
* (2017 March 17) Croatia Profile - Timeline. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17217954.
** United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Retrieved from http://www.icty.org.
Have a Book Suggestion for November's Country?
November's book comes from a country known in its native language as "Hrvatska." Since most of you don't speak Hrvatski, I assume this likely gives nothing away so a few more hints.
This country gave us the necktie & the Dalmatian breed of dog. It's also known for stunning lakes & waterfalls, soaring mountains & over 1000 islands off its sun-drenched coast.
Looking at the photo included above you may well agree with Alfred Hitchcock who was quoted as saying that this country's seaside town of Zadar has the most beautiful sunset in the world. This country's olive oil has even won awards beating out Italian, Greek, Spanish & Portuguese varieties!
So what country are we adventuring to?
Croatia - A country that's become more well known because of its stunning scenery shown in Game of Thrones. The Croatian city of Dubronik, whose city walls & forts became King’s Landing in the HBO tv series was titled "the pearl of the Adriatic" by Lord Byron, the English poet. Perched above the brilliant blue waters of the Adriatic, it's clear why this gorgeous medieval & beautifully-restored city retains this title even today.
Have Any Book Suggestions?
We'd love to hear suggestions from you! Just let us know by Sat., Oct. 14 11PM ET. (That's NYC time. See this converted to your local time below.)
Time converter at worldtimebuddy.com
We'll use 2 suggestions from book club members, 2 suggestions from Mia (the book club moderator) & 2 of my suggestions to compile a list of 6 books on which book club members will vote. The most popular book from the list will then be read.
Please note - We're specific in the books read, they must:
- Largely occur in the country specified unless the world described is an alternate universe
- Be written by an author born there who has spent a good portion of their life there
- Exist in paperback & ebook available on both Amazon & Kindle at least in the US & hopefully elsewhere
Engrossing Reads & Cold/Flu-Busting Drinks
Desperate for some relief from a nasty bug last winter, I crafted the perfect hot toddy to cure my ills & found some engrossing reads to distract me. So when a fellow booklover named Taylor Lee was sick, I had this info at the ready. You may want to keep this handy too with cold & flu season almost upon us.
Cold/Flu-Busting Hot Toddy
1 oz ginger liqueur
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 slice of lemon
6 oz hot water
1 TBSP raw honey
Mix the liqueur, lemon juice & hot water together. Then, mix in the honey & top with the 1/2 slice of lemon. (The initial ingredients will help cool down the toddy which preserves the honey's effectiveness.)
Makes 1 serving
The heat, ginger & small amount of alcohol warms you. The steam & spice helps clear your sinuses. The raw honey has antibacterial properties & works as a natural cough suppressant while also soothing your scratchy throat.
Note: Only raw honey has these benefits so buy some raw, real honey that's preferably local to you & not the golden syrup version sold in most stores as that is heated, processed & can even contain corn syrup. (Yuck!)
I usually make a couple of servings of the recipe & keep it warm in a thermos. If I'm having trouble sleeping, I'll sometimes add in a splash of dark rum to a nighttime mug of the hot toddy.
Other Soothing Drinks
It's really important to keep hydrated when you're sick so I also quaff these other soothing drinks as well throughout the day.
Ginger tea & ginger ale both made with real ginger to soothe an upset stomach.
Chamomile tea to help you sleep.
Licorice root tea which is useful to treat throat irritations, upper respiratory tract infections, digestive complaints & coughs.
A cup of hot vegetable broth to boost your immune system. (I like to make my own in a crock pot, but if I'm too ill, I'll buy Imagine Vegetable Broth which won a gold award for its superior taste.)
Note: I am not a doctor. If you're pregnant or suffer from serious problems like kidney disease or high blood pressure, you should first speak to your doctor before ingesting any of the above.
Engrossing Reads
When I'm sick, I need to be swept up into the story immediately & these 3 books do just that from beginning to end.
"A mindbending, relentlessly surprising thriller.
'Are you happy with your life?' Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”
In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.
Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human—a relentlessly surprising sci-fi thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of."
"Battle Royale, a high-octane thriller about senseless youth violence, is one of Japan's best-selling - and most controversial - novels. As part of a ruthless program by the totalitarian government, ninth-grade students are taken to a small isolated island with a map, food, and various weapons. Forced to wear special collars that explode when they break a rule, they must fight each other for three days until only one "winner" remains. The elimination contest becomes the ultimate in must-see reality television. A Japanese pulp classic available in English for the first time, Battle Royale is a potent allegory of what it means to be young and survive in today's dog-eat-dog world. The first novel by small-town journalist Koushun Takami, it went on to become an even more notorious film by 70-year-old gangster director Kinji Fukusaku."
"An extraordinary new thriller of the future from #1 New York Times–bestselling and Pulitzer Prize–winning author John Sandford.
The year is 2066. A Caltech intern inadvertently notices an anomaly from a space telescope—something is approaching Saturn, and decelerating. Space objects don’t decelerate. Spaceships do. Whatever built that ship is at least one hundred years ahead in hard and soft technology, and whoever can get their hands on it exclusively and bring it back will have an advantage so large, no other nation can compete. A conclusion the Chinese definitely agree with when they find out.
The race is on, and an remarkable adventure begins—an epic tale of courage, treachery, resourcefulness, secrets, surprises, and astonishing human and technological discovery, as the members of a hastily thrown-together crew find their strength and wits tested against adversaries both of this earth and beyond. What happens is nothing like you expect—and everything you could want from one of the world’s greatest masters of suspense."
View on Amazon (US) | (UK) | (Canada)
If you're already suffering from a cold or flu, I hope you get well soon!
October's Egyptian Book
“Is it the way the glorious past casts shadows over the present? Is it the way the lush Nile gives way to the harsh desert? Is it the light in the eye of the person telling me a story, who has just burst into laughter? The intensity of light, the love of life, the sense of family are just three reasons why I love Egypt of many more.”
You voted & choose a wonderful book for us to experience Egypt! Join us as we see through a woman doctor's eyes with an Egyptian autobiography written as fiction. Officially, we'll begin reading the book on October 1st so you have time to get it in advance. You have till the end of October to finish the book before we begin the discussion.
"Rebelling against the constraints of family and society, a young Egyptian woman decides to study medicine, becoming the only woman in a class of men. Her encounters with the other students - as well as with male and female corpses in the autopsy room - intensify her search for identity. She realises that men are not gods, as her mother had taught her, that science cannot explain everything, and that she cannot be satisfied by living a life purely of the mind. After a brief and unhappy marriage, she throws herself into her work, becoming a successful and wealthy doctor. But at the same time, she becomes more aware of the injustice and hypocrisy in society. She comes to find fulfillment, not in isolation, but through her relationship with others. This novel will enhance Dr. Nawal El Saadawi's international reputation as a writer of power and compassion, deeply committed to the rights of Arab women."
Happy reading!
Which Egyptian Book Should We Read?
As a scuba diver who longs to dive the Red Sea, I'm familiar with the political situation in Egypt, but the wannabe Egyptologist in me somehow assumed we'd read novels of Ancient Egypt filled with Pharaohs, pyramids & mummies. I was surprised to find that those stories were mainly written by authors from the US & the UK. And that is what's magical about reading books written by native authors—your perceptions change about the country.
This month, you'll choose among works of literature, a quirky mystery, science fiction & what appears to be an autobiography written as fiction. Special thanks to Aisha Esbhani & Julie Jacobs for their suggestions included in this list!
You can vote until Wed., Sept. 20 11PM ET. (That's NYC time. See this converted to your local time below.)
Time converter at worldtimebuddy.com
To participate:
1. Review the books.
We'll publish the anonymous results afterwards so you can get the book in advance.
Book Festivities!
Whether you're an ebook admirer, a paperback lover or a hard cover devotee, Monday, September 18 will be a very bookish day with two different book festivities taking place worldwide. And A World Adventure by Book is joining both bookish events!
Read an eBook Day is OverDrive's celebration of modern storytelling with authors such as James Patterson, Ryan Graudin, Brad Meltzer & Dawn Kurtagich. Share which eBook you’re reading online September 18 using the hashtag #eBookLove to join the conversation & you may even win a Kobo Aura ONE! (If you've never tried an eBook before, it's also the perfect time to discover the joy of digital reading by borrowing an eBook from your local library.)
Hide a Book Day is your chance to spread a love of reading by hiding a new or used book for people to find & read on September 18. We're joining the Book Fairies & GoodReads on this magical day by offering a bookmark designed to celebrate the event which you can download for free right now.
Remember to tag your posts with #AWorldAdventureByBook & post in the book club so we can see your books & join in on the celebration!
Any Book Suggestions for October's Country?
If you voted on which country we should read in October, then you may already know which area of the world we're reading next. If not, here are a few hints.
It has camels & world class scuba diving (not that I'm obsessed with scuba or anything). During ancient times, fly swatters made from giraffe tails were a popular fashion item in this country & one of its leaders supposedly smeared naked slaves with honey to attract flies away from him!*
Today, the country's official name is Junhuriyah Misr al-Arabiyah, which in English means the Arab Republic of Egypt though Egyptians themselves refer to Egypt as Misr.
Results of the country vote
Crazy COuntry facts
To whet your appetite for October, I give you 5 astonishing Egyptian facts:
1. 150 years ago, Americans & Europeans believed that mummies had healing powers & used ground up mummy powder as medicine for many diseases.*
2. To stay cool & avoid lice, ancient Egyptian men & women shaved their heads & often wore wigs. The rich wore human hair wigs made while the poor wore wigs made from wool or vegetable fiber. The women would top their wig with a cone of a greasy substance that gradually melted giving off a pleasing scent of myrrh.*
Despite its cheesy cover, this series is great & FREE with Prime: http://amzn.to/2wIQoja
3. The "ripper" was the embalmer who made the first cut into the body during the mummification process. Since this was an offense to the body, the rest of the embalmers threw stones at the ripper & chased him away with curses.*
4. In ancient Egypt, every big city supported one favorite god much like people support football teams today.*
5. There is an ancient Egyptian obelisk known as Cleopatra’s Needle which in NYC! Sadly, it has suffered more damage in the 125 years it has stood in Central Park from pollution & weather than in the THOUSANDS of years it stood in Egypt.**
Have Any Egyptian Book Suggestions?
We'd love to hear book suggestions from you. Just let us know by Thurs., Sept. 14 11PM ET. (That's NYC time. See this converted to your local time below.)
Time converter at worldtimebuddy.com
Please note - We're specific in the books we read, they must:
- Largely occur in the country specified unless the world described is an alternate universe
- Be written by an author born there who has spent a good portion of their life there
- Exist in paperback & ebook available on both Amazon & Kindle at least in the US & hopefully elsewhere
* Walker, Jane. 100 Things You Should Know about Ancient Egypt. Broomall, PA: Mason Crest Publishers, 2003.
** Briquelet, Kate. (2014 June 14) How Cleopatra’s Needle got to Central Park. The NY Post. Retrieved from http://nypost.com/2014/06/14/how-cleopatras-needle-a-3500-year-old-egyptian-obelisk-got-to-central-park/.
Baring Your Bookish Soul
I came across a post where a woman listed her bookish facts. I loved this idea! However, I realized my own were far more sordid. But I thought it could be cathartic to bare my bookish soul & list them anyway. I invite you to do the same.
I'll start.
1. When I was a child, I found out I was speed reading. I had no idea I was doing it so it came as quite a shock! But it was also a relief to finally make sense of why kids thought I was lying about the number of books I read in a week.
2. I now refuse to read a series unless it's completed because of my trauma with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. His series of 14 books published over 23 years ruined me. I would forget all the details & have to re-read each book in the series in order to read the new one when it came out. I gave up 3/4 of the way through the series & can't put myself through that torture again.
3. I despise books that end on an unhappy note. Even if I adored the book up until the ending, a sad final chapter will turn my love into pure, unadulterated loathing.
4. I can read for hours on end & have been known to easily lose a day or even weekend reading. However, I've had people refuse to believe this because I don't fit their view of a bookworm since I'm extroverted & love adventurous activities like scuba diving.
5. As someone who works in tech, I was absurdly old fashioned in my preference of "real" books over ebooks for many years. But a gift of a Kindle one year has turned me into the biggest ereader proponent.
6. But when I do read a paperback or hardcover, I am one of those monsters who cracks its spine & bends its pages to bookmark my place because I think a well-loved book has more soul.
7. When I was a teenager, one friend lent me his favorite book. I still have this book (included here) & will likely never return it. (Hi Jay!)
8. I do not understand the obsession with reading hardcovers. Though they're beautiful, I find them clumsy to read & their jackets always get in the way. I was book-shamed about this as a teenager & because of that began hiding the fact that I always threw away the jackets.
9. I will only read audiobooks that are listed as better than the paper-based versions. Even then, I have been known to return the audiobook because the narrator's voice bugged me or my mind wandered. (Learn from my previous mistakes & check out my 7 Best Tips for Audiobook Virgins & Newbies to help ensure you’re getting the best audiobook experience.)
10. When I was in college, another friend lent me a series of books by Michael Moorcock which he adored. I also never returned them. (I'm sorry, Jon!)
11. Repeatedly lifting an ever growing cache of books was the reason my friends refused to help me move ever again. (Their last straw was a move which included 17 large almost-hernia-inducing boxes. Thanks Jay & Steve!)
Aah, I feel so much better!
Now, it's your turn.
Let's hear your bookish facts as you bare your bookish soul.
Hide a Book Day with Goodreads & The Book Fairies!
Have you seen the posts of people (like Emma Watson) who plant beloved books for strangers to randomly find & read? Well, we're joining in with Goodreads & The Book Fairies on Hide A Book Day to spread a love of reading & brighten someone's day.
Want to Participate in Hide a Book Day on Sept. 18?
- Let us know you'd like to join in.
- We'll send you a (free) special sticker or bookmark wherever you are in the world.*
- Pick out one of your favorite books—perhaps a book you read for our book club still in good condition or a newly bought copy of another book. Either way, we suggest an international read. :)
- On Sept. 18, you'll hide the book along with the sticker/bookmark. You can choose to wrap the book with a ribbon if you'd like. (You can also buy Book Fairies ribbons and other paraphernalia.) Keep the weather in mind for any outdoor locations & remember that the books should be hidden, but not too hidden. You want someone to stumble upon the book without any advance clues.
- Post a photo of the book in our Facebook group as well as on social media with the hashtags:
#HideABookDay #IBelieveInBookFairies #AWorldAdventureByBook
Help spread the joy of books & happy surprises by joining in!
Special thanks to book club member, Stacey Wood who inspired me to do something selfless for someone else as a gift to her on her birthday. Happy birthday, Stacey!
*Open to book club members only. We'll send Book Fairies/Goodreads stickers to the first 11 people who wish to participate. We'll send all others including our international book club members, a special bookmark electronically to download & print out.
September's Brazilian Book & Something New :o
Some of you noted in our survey that you aren't participating in our monthly read because the book you wanted wasn't chosen. So we're going to try something new.
What's Changing
This month, if you want to read the official book chosen below, great. If not, we urge you to choose one of the other Brazilian books. Mia will be reading the main book. I'll be reading another one. And I know members are excited about some of the others. So read what you want & we'll later have a fun discussion about ALL the Brazilian books!
So What's September's Brazilian Book?
If you like the main book below, read it. If not, choose any of the other Brazilian books below & we'll discuss them all at the end of September.
The main book as chosen by members & being read by Mia:
Genre: Young Adult (Sub-genres: Fiction, Magical Realism)
Amazon: 5 out of 5 (4 ratings)
Goodreads: 3.87 out of 5 (380 ratings)
Pages: 192
Of note: A 2017 LA Times Book Prize Finalist. A NY Public Library Best Book for Teens. The author was selected to take part in a workshop by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez himself based on this book's synopsis.
All the other Brazilian books you can choose to read & discuss instead:
Genre: Science Fiction (Sub-genres: Dystopian, Cultural)
Amazon: 5 out of 5 (3 ratings)
Goodreads: 4.18 out of 5 (182 ratings)
Pages: 374
Of note: In the tradition of Nineteen Eighty-Four, but written in a strikingly Brazilian way.
View on Amazon (US) | (UK) | (Canada)
Genre: Urban (Sub-genres: Classic, Historical)
Amazon: 4.2 out of 5 (20 ratings)
Goodreads: 4.17 out of 5 (9,244 ratings)
Pages: 280
Of note: Considered a Brazilian Lord of the Flies. The NY Times called the author "Brazil's most illustrious and venerable novelist."
Genre: Literature (Sub-genres: Urban, Historical)
Amazon: 3.9 out of 5 (20 reviews)
Goodreads: 3.92 out of 5 (1,229 ratings)
Pages: 452
Of note: Became an internationally acclaimed hit film. Novelistic account based upon real events.
View on Amazon (US) | (UK) | (Canada)
Genre: Autobiography (Sub-genres: Special Groups, Down Syndrome)
Amazon: Not rated
Goodreads: 3.74 out of 5 (365 ratings)
Pages: 232
Of note: Won every major Brazilian literary prize. Shortlisted for Dublin's International Literary Award. Won France's Charles Brisset Award. (If you're curious, this is the book I'll be reading. )
Genre: Psychological (Sub-genres: Fiction, Avant-Garde)
Amazon: 3.4 out of 5 (3 ratings)
Goodreads: 3.73 out of 5 (279 ratings)
Pages: 98
Of note: Best Book of 2014 by NPR. The translator won the Susan Sontag Prize for Literary Translation with a section from this book.
View on Amazon (US) | (UK) | (Canada)
We can't wait to hear which Brazilian book you've decided to read & hear your thoughts on how we set up the reading this month!
Great International Audiobooks
We're of course fans of global reading, but finding a great international book with a wonderful translator…that’s also available as an audiobook with a compelling narrator? That's difficult!
However, we've managed to compile a list of 16 great international audiobooks below for some happy listening.
Funny German mystery with a supernatural element
A multi-generational Colombian work of fiction with touches of magical realism
A moving story from South Africa about a Zulu pastor, his son, & racial injustice
An Israeli autobiographic mystery about the Holocaust
Classic fiction from British India with a full cast performance
A charming German fantasy about magic, romance, & time travel
A poignant account of war from the 1st Belarusian to win a Nobel Prize
A memoir from a devout Saudi woman who became a courageous leader
Engaging political fiction about a soldier in a Siberian labor camp
A Canadian children's classic which even adults love
Classic French science fiction from a beloved master storyteller
A Turkish love story in 1920's Istanbul inspired by the author's family history
Inspirational poetic essays written by a Lebanese philosopher
An autobiography both sad & hilarious written by a South African comedian
Beautifully-written Turkish literature with a view into Sufi Mysticism
A magical tale from a Turkish author set during the height of the Ottoman Empire
VOTE: Which Book Do You Want to Read From Brazil?
Based upon your feedback, we're going to be trying out some new things over the next few months. (If you haven't yet taken the anonymous 4-question survey on how to make our book club better, please do. Take it & you might win an Amazon gift card!)
In the surveys submitted so far, many of you are appreciative of how we select the country's books. You liked that:
- We included different genres
- Members could suggest books
- The books Mia & I find are often readily available in both ebook & paperback formats to borrow/buy
No system is perfect, but we're glad that the majority of you seem to enjoy our book selections as well as reading books from other countries.
Now onto the vote!
Vote on Which Book to Read in September
A big shout to Kathryn Fox, Caity Greig, & Kaman Maxwell for their suggestions! Since the book club votes from a list of 6 books every month (2 from me, 2 from Mia & 2 from members), we chose which of the member-suggested books would be included via lottery. Click here to view a 1 minute 29 second video & turn up the sound to see which books were suggested & watch the lottery draw as it occurred.
For September, we have 2 new genres in the list which we've never included before: Psychological & Young Adult. In addition, there are 4 other genres to choose from: Science Fiction, Autobiography, Literature & Urban.
You can vote until Sun., Aug. 20 11PM ET. (That's NYC time. See this converted to your local time below.)
Time converter at worldtimebuddy.com
To participate:
1. Review the books.
We'll publish the anonymous results afterwards so you can get the book in advance.